The present invention relates to a disposable absorbent undergarment and, more particularly, to an disposable absorbent undergarment such as disposable diapers, incontinent pads, training pants and the like.
It is well known as a usual technique to attach elastic members to the foresaid undergarments around leg-hole defining edges thereof to fit these edges around a wearer's legs. Such technique is well known, for example, from the disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,084 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 3-186263, according to which these elastic members for the undergarment comprise a first elastic member extending along front-halves of the leg-hole defining edges of undergarment and a second elastic member extending along rear-halves thereof. These well known techniques are said to allow different conditions, for example, the types, the number, the arrangement spaces and the contractile forces of the elastic members, to be adopted for the front-halves and the rear-halves of the leg-hole defining edges to achieve the undergarment having the optimal comfortableness to wear as well as the optimal ability of preventing body fluids from leaking sideways.
According to the disclosure of the above-cited U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,084, the first elastic member extends from transversely central zone of a rear section of the undergarment along the front-halves of the leg-hole defining edges so as to generally described "U" while the second elastic member extends from transversely central zone of a front section of the undergarment along the rear-halves of the leg-hole defining edges so as to generally describe "inverted U", wherein these first and second elastic members intersect each other on a longitudinal center line of a crotch section of the undergarment adjacent the respective leg-hole defining edges so that these first and second elastic members cooperate with each other to surround the respective leg-hole defining edges.
Similarly, according to the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 3-186263, the first elastic member is attached to the front-halves and the second elastic member is attached to the rear-halves of the leg-hole defining edges of the undergarment with their longitudinally inner portions intersecting each other in a longitudinally central zone of a crotch section of the undergarment.
FIG. 9 of the accompanying drawings is a plan view exemplarily showing the undergarment according to above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 3-186263, in which first and second elastic members 15, 16 are attached to a backsheet 12 along front-halves and rear-halves of leg-hole defining edges, respectively, and intersect each other at an angle A in a central zone of a crotch section 8. From a state shown by FIG. 9, the undergarment may be folded in two with a front section 6 lying upon a rear section 7 and thereby loops closely surrounding a wearer's legs may be formed by these first and second elastic members 15, 16. However, if the angle A is relatively small, it will be difficult to put the loops closely around the legs in the proximity of the points at which the first and second elastic members 15, 16 intersect each other and body fluids readily leak sideways there. Discharge of body fluids is concentrated in the crotch section and therefore this problem is serious for the undergarment having the elastic members 15, 16 intersecting each other in the crotch section.
FIG. 10 of the accompanying drawings is a plan view showing the undergarment according to the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,084, in which the first and second leg-hole surrounding elastic members 15, 16 are spaced from each other by a distance D in the central zone of a crotch section 8.
From a state shown by FIG. 10, the undergarment may be folded in two with a front section 6 lying upon a rear section 7 and thereby loops closely surrounding a wearer's legs may be substantially formed by these first and second elastic members 15, 16. However, the first and second elastic members 15, 16 are spaced from each other in the central zone of the crotch zone 8, so it is difficult to put the loops closely around the legs in the proximity of the points at which the first and second elastic members 15, 16 intersect each other and body fluids readily leak sideways there. Discharge of body fluids is concentrated in the crotch section and therefore this problem is also serious the same as the foresaid problem.
The attempt has sometimes been made to increase a contractile force of the elastic members in order to solve this problem. However, this attempt has not been a perfect solution, since the increased contractile force of the elastic members may disturb blood circulation around the legs and deteriorate a comfortableness of the undergarment to wear.